ASHTABULA GROWS! celebrate autumn with us – last session 2021

Posted on September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 by gallo3000

Learn from the squirrels – save an acorn for later!

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. –Audrey Hepburn

Hello, Ashtabula Grows Friends!

This morning while out on a walk I noticed many squirrels running around with nuts in their mouths. It was a great reminder to start planning for winter and maximizing your harvest – or at least, someone else’s local harvest! It’s been an interesting summer and with the full moon and a few days we will gracefully, and not subtly, grow into autumn. Time to enjoy the bounty (and work hard to preserve it).

We will meet at Rose DiGeronimo’s farm in Cherry Valley this Thursday at 6pm. Feel free to bring something to share! If you have never registered for an Ashtabula Grows! event, please click here. Otherwise, you will be receiving our newsletter today and it will have the address included. Thank you!

Let’s get together! We can discuss seed saving and sharing for next season! Also, our friends at Red Beet Row are hosting a class on Seed Exchange at the Jefferson Public Library on Oct 7.

Bring your own bowl and spoon, stories of your garden, seeds or plants to share if you are feeling inspired. Email us at ashtabulalocalfood@gmail.com with questions, rsvp and/or directions.

Coming up: At Harbor Gardens, personal chef, Nancy Gottron (and wonderful friend/guest/instructor of Ashtabula Grows) will be leading a class demonstration on Cooking with Herbs. Unleash the magic of herbs! This Friday at 6pm in Ashtabula Harbor. Click here to register and purchase tickets.

Don’t worry if you didn’t grow enough food on your own…let some local farmers fill your basket with home grown goodness! There are a few more weeks of the Ashtabula County Farmers’ Markets – many are going through the second or third week of October. Buy directly from a farmer – our Local Food Guide gives names and addresses of over 80 farms in the county who will sell directly to you!

We look forward to seeing you Thursday at 6pm!

Check out our website at AshtabulaLocalFood.org for event announcements, presentations, handouts and the Ashtabula Local Food guide.

Join us for week long discussion, photos, Q&A on fb: AshtabulaGrows: an online community garden
Email us at AshtabulaLocalFood@gmail.com

It’s never too late…or too early!

Tomato Season – August 2021

Posted on August 16, 2021 by gallo3000

homegrown with some fresh sour dough bread by Sarah

We hope you are enjoying the bounty of your garden (or someone else’s garden – and there are plenty of local options)! Summer is in full swing and if you time it right, you may be able to pick some of your produce in between summer “sprinkles.”

Ashtabula Grows! is gearing up for a fun few weeks of social – and internet – gathering. Our class schedule:

Thursday, August 19th – in the kitchen with Nancy Grotton

Thursday, August 26th – fermenting with Rose Geronimo at Harbor Gardens, in person

Thursday, September 16th – canning with Cathy at Harbor Gardens, in person

Thursday, September 23rd – Garden Tour with Rose Geronimo in Cherry Valley! (she mentioned a hay ride, too)

Other area happenings:

Check out the local farmers’ markets here – local markets are happening on Friday-Saturday-Sunday

Reeds and Roots – one day skill share – September 4th! This will be held at the Blakeslee Cabin

in Ashtabula

Many of our friends will be teaching…a not-to-miss free event with a great line-up of classes including: Wild Mushroom ID – Beginning Hand Spinning – Intro to Fly Tying: Tying Your First Fly – How to Make Salves, Ointments, and Balms – Uncle Mud Presents: Building with Local Natural Materials – Mythical Mushrooms: The Legends and Lore from the Forest Floor – Night Skies – Using Herbs and Plants from Your Yard – The Minimalist Nomadic Lifestyle – Present Minded Conveyer of Emotion Through Movement – Urban Permaculture: Fitting the Most in Small Spaces – Minimal Waste Cooking – Making Cordage With Plant Fibers – Useful Trees, Shrubs, and Vines – Moving Heavy Things

Harbor Gardens 1022 Bridge Street – Ashtabula, OH

will be hosting several classes – soft opening this Friday when Sarah Brower will be taking us on a world pepper tour that will include some tasty taste testing and you will learn to make a homemade ristra! To sign up for this class – click here.

Summer Greens – Week of July 12th

Posted on July 12, 2021July 12, 2021 by gallo3000

With all this basil, I am sure there is some fresh pesto around! North East Ohio boasts some of the most magnificent array of greens I have had the privilege to see from around the world. Summer is a glorious month of lush shades of green. If you are walking around your neighborhood or farm, driving to work, enjoying the beach – take a look around and count the number of greens you see. And we haven’t even started on the edible greens!

Join us, this WEDNESDAY (a switch from our usual) at 7pm with Ashtabula County Master Gardener – Linda Dole! Linda will be sharing insights into the mid-summer garden. A magical and productive place.

Join Asthabula Grows! on Zoom this Wednesday at 7pm:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9726341586

Our garden tour this month will be at the My Neighborhood Collaborative Community Garden next Thursday, July 22, 2021 at Kadon Presidential Park in Ashtabula. 6pm

Support your local farmers – directly – by going to a Farmers’ Market this weekend! Markets are held in Ashtabula, Conneaut, Geneva, Jefferson and North Kingsville.

Check out some classes from Red Beet Row in Jefferson

Upcoming classes include: Off Grid Solar Electricity – July 30 ; Homemade Fertility – Aug 14

Check out local gardening tips, news letter and online resource – Rust Belt Roots‘ Seasonal Gardening by Sarah Brower and Leah Wolfe.

–

Instead of avocado I use zucchini – gives the creamy texture – and I usually have some on hand this time of year. Enjoy!

Tonight at 7pm!

Posted on June 17, 2021 by gallo3000

Ashtabula Grows! in the Zen – Garden with dia Fleming

Hello, Gardening, and, appreciators-of-delicious-food-Friends!

Time for some garden therapy! Isn’t every day a perfect day to get out of the house, out of your head, into the garden, into the fresh air and take a deep breath. In through the nose and out through the mouth 1 – 2 – 3 slowly. And, then, ready to celebrate the summer solstice…together. Perhaps after class tonight with Dia Fleming…a salute to the garden as a mindful meditation – or at least a gorgeous reprieve – you may feel inspired to host a summer solstice celebration in your back yard. Celebrate all of the various shades of green that we are able to appreciate in NE Ohio. Truly, there are very few places so spectacular in shades and hues.

Ashtabula Farmers’ Markets are Back in Full Swing!

Ashtabula – Sundays 10 – 2pm; beginning 2nd Sunday of June through 2nd Sunday of October; 1105 Bridge Street

Conneaut – Saturdays, 9-1 at the Moose Club Parking lot, Conneaut, OH 44048. Every week until the second week in October. .

Jefferson – Saturdays mornings, 9-1, located behind the Jefferson Historical Society, 42 E Jefferson Street

Kingsville – new market on Fridays, more information can be found on AshtabulaLocalFood.org website

Zen knows no god, no afterlife, no good and no evil, as the rock-garden knows no flowers, herbs or shrubs. It has no doctrine or holy writ: its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolise now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. (author unknown)

The 2020 Local food guide is out. Download from our website here. Local farms, farmers markets and more! 2021 is coming soon!

We look forward to seeing you Thursday, June 17th at 7pm!

Check out our website at AshtabulaLocalFood.org for class videos, presentations, handouts and the Ashtabula Local Food guide.
Join us for week long discussion, photos, Q&A on
facebook: AshtabulaGrows: an online community garden
Email us at AshtabulaLocalFood@gmail.com

ZOOM information:
Topic: Ashtabula Grows!
Time: Jun 17, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9726341586

Meeting ID: 972 634 1586
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,9726341586# US

Ashtabula Grows! Year Two-2021

Posted on May 14, 2021July 1, 2021 by gallo3000

Hello, friends, neighbors and gardeners!

What a gorgeous spring day and piled high with some fabulous CDC news this morning regarding vaccinations and mask wearing. Vaccinated? Take it off! (If your state allows and you feel comfortable, of course). Big smile. We are heading the right direction.

When we, Julie, Dia, Sarah and I envisioned Ashtabula Grows last year, it was a direct response to the mandatory quarantine that was happening globally. We wanted to remain connected, build our community and foster food security.

This year we are building on those themes AND, in adding to the virtual component, we will be hosting a monthly garden tour. Come on out and share some local gardens, smells, flavors and sights of our fruitful Ashtabula County. Each month we will have one zoom event and then an in-person, out-of-doors, garden tour the following week.

You may remember Ashtabula Grows! is a side-shoot of Ashtabula Local Food – a group dedicated to promoting local food in Ashtabula County, educating and providing support and collaboration of local growers and community members. We aim to have some fun and eat well! Check out our website at AshtabulaLocalFood.org. There are some interesting pages which include our annual Local Food Guide (with over 90 farms in Ashtabula County who sell/grow Food, livestock, honey and maple syrup). The booklet also has information on all of the local farmer’s markets and seed banks within the county.

On-line class starts next week…Thursday, May 20th at 7pm. Please go to our website, AshtabulaLocalFood.org or our Facebook page to register! All classes are free! Or, click on this link: https://forms.gle/gkY6fZ2Wo6dQkmNU7

In person garden tours begin the following week, May 27th. Registration is Mandatory but tour is free.

Spring is on! If you missed our annual seed swap, no worries. There are local farms where you can purchase seed starts….including Honey Hallow Herbs, Red Beet Row and Yellow Brick House.

Schedule for 2021

MAY

May 20: Wild and Cultivated Salad: Sarah Brower/Gallo (virtual); 7pm

May 27: farm tour at 1033 – making a back-yard salad with Brower/Gallo (in-person); 6pm

JUNE

June 17: Dia mental health/garden therapy (virtual); 7pm

July 1: Diversion Center Garden (in-person); 6pm – Meet at Key Bank parking lot on Main Street in downtown Ashtabula

JULY

July 15: Master Gardeners’ TBA (virtual); 7pm

July 22: Community Garden (in-person); 6pm

AUGUST:

August 19: Nancy Grotton: food preservation (virtual); 7pm

August 26: Rose DeGeronimo at The General Store demonstration kitchen doing fermentation (in-person); 6pm

SEPTEMBER

September 16: Canning – Kathy Westcott – The General Store demonstration kitchen (virtual and in-person); 7pm

September 23: Rose DeGeronimo farm tour in Cherry Valley (in-person); 6pm

Strawberry and Wine Cap Mushroom patch – 2021

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

8.25.2020: ASHTABULA GROWS! THIS TUESDAY…PESTS AND POLLINATORS – LAST CLASS OF THE SEASON

Posted on August 25, 2020August 25, 2020 by gallo3000

Litchi Tomato does well in Ashtabula. The plant itself is covered with thorns, so it is sometimes used as a hedge plant to discourage animals from wandering into vegetable gardens – tastes great, too!

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. –Audrey Hepburn

Hello, friends!

It’s the beginning of school for the children and it is our last Ashtabula Grows! class of the season. What a hot and dry week. If you were in some parts of the county you may have experienced a little rain but many of us have been pretty dry with just a smattering of rain. We are hoping you, your garden and all living organisms in your garden are thriving (with any pesky insects kept to a minimum).

Speaking of pests – our last topic of the season will be focusing on pests and pollinators. We have had many photos of weeds, insects, invasives, and some damaging worms on our Ashtabula Grows! facebook group.

Leah Wolfe, a member of our Ashtabula Local Food team, herbalist, and co-creator of the Trillium Center, is starting up a new group and series called Rust Belt Roots. Her first publication about preserving foods should be out soon and you can find her on fb. This is an exciting effort to continue the discussion of building community resilience and food security. Check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/348621332768499

Get together! We are inviting folks for a garden tour and stone soup experience on Sunday, September 20th at 1pm-3pm. Bring something from your garden to put into the soup (we will cook it on the spot out of doors) and we will have a bowl together! We will be outside and have tables distanced, hand washing stations and bring your mask! Harbor Gardens and Holistic Health is located in Ashtabula. Whether you have come to one class, all classes or are still wondering what all the buzz is about…come join us!
Bring your own bowl and spoon, stories of your garden, seeds or plants to share if you are feeling inspired! Email us at ashtabulalocalfood@gmail.com with questions, rsvp and/or directions!

Missed a class? Last week we had an opportunity to learn some new recipes and tricks of the trade with Nancy Gottron of Up Scale Eats (straight out of Hartsgrove, OH). Click here to view all previous classes on Zoom.

Don’t worry if you didn’t grow enough food on your own…let some local farmers fill your basket with home grown goodness! The 2020 Local food guide is out. Download from our website here. Local farms, farmers markets and more!

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, August 25th at 6pm!

8.17.2020 Cooking what you grow!

Posted on August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 by gallo3000

Hello, friends!

It’s time for our second-to-last-class of the season. It’s a great time to focus on good eats! This will be special “how to” class with Nancy Gottron of Up Scale Eats. She will be sharing some great recipes for can-it-yourself-pie filling, GF oat bars, blueberry pie filling to freeze, pumpkin blueberry bread, etc. She will also tout the nutritional benefits of blueberries and show how to best freeze a supply!

Are you interested in home grown food but did not have as much yield in your own garden to feed your whole house? My Neighborhood has got an opportunity to become a part of their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For $200.00 you can get 10 weeks of produce that was grown in the community garden in Ashtabula! This is a steal and there are only 5 spots left. This weekend is the first box so you have not yet missed anything. This might also make a GREAT gift for someone who struggles with time or money for buying local food.

See the My Neighborhood, Ashtabula Local Food or OSU extension FB pages for more info or click on this form to sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsNKQW8Z9X4H0V2xmp7AHBvEkiVDET4inkOeA-WKsjMKuj3w/viewform?embedded=true&fbclid=IwAR2tCF59wS-fjG2dALOaGZj_FK0-O7pB1JZcOFJD6whVFUUB002W9bGCDlE

Maybe listen to the podcast below before making your decision….it’s a good reminder to recommit to buying local food!

Missed a class? Last week we had an opportunity to discuss seed saving with John Wright of Red Beet Row. Click here to view all previous classes on Zoom.

The 2020 Local food guide is out. Download from our website here. Local farms, farmers markets and more!

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, August 11th at 6pm!

Aug 11th – Ashtabula Grows! Mid-summer garden dreaming

Posted on August 11, 2020 by gallo3000

Maureen demonstrates the bounty of last fall’s garlic planting

Hello, friends!

It is difficult to remember how life was just a year ago. Our world has turned upside down and there has to be a silver lining. Actually, it is pretty exciting to imagine a new future for our community. Now is the time to dream big as we have the opportunity to not restore things to the way they were – but make our world even better!

You may say I am a dreamer…sit with me a minute and imagine…with plenty of evidence that we can reverse heart disease and Alzheimer’s through diet (1, 2), access to more fresh water than almost anywhere in the world, and the largest county in the state with plenty of rich soil with plenty of knowledgeable farmers and tools..can you picture what we can accomplish together? Envision every person eating fresh food, grown here with our own hands, a bountiful table of colorful, and shared in kindness. Eliminating food scarcity and malnutrition while working together toward a common goal. Everyone could win! And, we have the natural resources to make this happen. We have enough and there is enough to share. A perfect opportunity to introduce our topic for tonight’s class – seed saving.

Tonight’s class on seed saving is a piece of building our strength and resilience…join Sarah and John, of Red Beet Row, as they discuss the how to’s of seed saving.

Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

1. “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The revolutionary, scientifically proven, nutrition-based cure.” Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr, MD.
2. “The Alzheimer’s Solution: A breakthrough program to prevent and reverse the symptoms of congitive decline at every age.” Dean & Ayesha Sherazi, MD. Codirectors of the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. 2017.

Missed a class? Last week we had an opportunity to practice our tomato pruning and test our knowledge with Sarah Brower. Click here to view all previous classes.

The new 2020 Local Food Guide is out! Download it from our website or click here https://ashtabulalocalfood.org/local-food-guide/

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, August 11th at 6pm!

Maureen teaches her neighbor to braid garlic for a beautifully displayed bounty

Aug 4th – Ashtabula Grows! Tomato pruning and garden tour tonight at 6pm

Posted on August 4, 2020 by gallo3000

So, your summer garden is growing! Perhaps you have been overtaken by the joy and bounty to harvest, prepare and share? The summer garden is filled with life and living food and reminds us what homegrown means – more color, more nutrition and more taste! The ratatouille of tomatoes, egg plant, onions, zucchini, with herbs of rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley….straight out of a Pixar/Disney movie (but without the mice).

Building community resilience starts at home and if you are growing a garden…you are already doing it! Seed saving and pruning will help make even more of your garden and ensure that it continues to thrive – through the season and into next year. Join us tonight as Sarah Brower returns this week with special guest, Hope Paluga of Yellow House Farm in Jefferson, to walk us through the summer garden, prune some tomatoes, consider which seeds to save and more!

A sneak peak at pruning tomatoes

Missed a class? Last week we had an opportunity to practice our meditation garden with Dia Fleming of The Connection Center. Click here to view all previous classes.

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, July 28th at 6pm!

July 28th – Ashtabula Grows! The garden meditation

Posted on July 28, 2020 by gallo3000

Today, listen to what the bees have to say

Have you ever been in the middle of gardening, planting, digging or weeding and you stop and notice your thoughts. Perhaps you are thinking about your to-do list, or what happened this morning at the breakfast table or your ears and head are ringing with the latest news update? It is in those moments it really interesting to just stop and take a look around. You may notice the birds singing, the bees buzzing and if you listen really closely, you may even hear the plants breathing. At this time you may even take a deep breath in and notice the smells of the day. Tomato plants and basil are some of the local favorite smells at this time of year. Taking in your garden, with all your senses helps one to be in the moment now. Clearing your mind and focusing on the present are just a few ways we can reconnect with ourselves and our garden. And then you might notice that that is all that matters – it is the moment.

Dia Flemming of Connections Center returns this week to breathe us through a garden meditation! A chance to reconnect with ourselves, with nature and our community.

How gardening can change your attitude

Missed a class? Click here to view all previous classes.

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, July 28th at 6pm!